Trina's thread on her new fridge made me think, since several of you posted about the high energy costs.

Our electric bill used to never be below $100-$110 a month, and that was the few weeks when we didn't use the A/C. It was as high as $300 in the hottest part of summer - August and September.

Since we got new windows last year, it is substantially lower. My bill for March/April was just $67!!! The one I just paid was around $100. Typically they would run me at least $150-$175 this time of year.

So how much is your average electric bill?

By Debbie on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 08:08 am:

Currently, I pay an average monthly payment on both my electric and gas. Mainly, because our gas bill is so high in winter. I pay $75.00 a month for electric, but $200.00 a month for gas!! My highest electric bill is never over $125.00. But, my gas bill can get over $300.00 in winter. Part of the problems is that the windows in this house are 12 yrs. old and really need to be replaced. We didn't do it last year because we knew we would be moving. Our new houses has great windows, so I am hoping it will help with utility bills, especially gas.

When we lived in Texas, I did have a few high electric bills in Aug. and Sept. I think I paid around $200.00 those 2 months. But, most of the others were just around $100.00.

By Kaye on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 08:22 am:

LOL...my bill last month was 350. My bills in the summer are as high as 500. Mind you I live in Houston, the armpit of the US. We will go a solid month where the humidity is so bad you can't open windows at all. We have already had a least one day that the air was so thick you really couldn't breathe. I know it is humid in other parts, but really if you haven't been to Houston you have NO IDEA! I keep our house pretty cool, it is on 76 during the day (for downstairs) and 72 at night. The kids unit upstairs stays set on 78.

The other factor is cost is just how big the house is. Ours is 3400 sqft, we have two ac units.

By Debbie on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 08:46 am:

LOL, Kaye. I grew up in Beaumont, so I can definitely understand about the humidity!!

By Tripletmom on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 09:14 am:

My gas bill for last month was$316.00 we pay gas monthly.My last hydro bill was $275.00 this is every 2nd month and includes water.I don't know how these ultilities companies can charge so much its getting harder and harder to live these days.

By Karen~moderator on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 09:50 am:

Kaye, I've been to Houston, and I live around New Orleans, so I can totally relate! The humidity is just stifling! As Pamt once said, the humidity in the air is so thick, you can chew the air. LOL But $500 a month! Yowsahs!!! My house is like half the size of yours. I would die if I had a $500 utility bill!

Dawn, our new windows are double paned, with the energy efficient gas stuff inbetween, and it has made quite a difference in our bills. My house is 21 years old, the original windows were CHEAP and you could feel the hot air moving in around them. These new windows are great. The company said they could guarantee a 30% reduction in energy costs but I didn't believe them, but they were right.

By Tarable on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 11:10 am:

Well I live near Dallas and out electric bill is close to 300 a month and our house is only 1500 sqft. And we are on the average monthly plan. We also have 2 a/c units and a 2 story house with vaulted ceilings, but right now our biggest problem is that we have not had any months that our heater or a/c was not on because it got so hot so fast this year. Our house is also all electric so no gas bill. I can't imagine what our bill will be in Aug and Sept (even with average billing they will raise it a little with peak usage). Hopefully when we get a new house (ours is just getting too small) it will be more efficient.

By Kaye on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 01:43 pm:

WE have gas heat and water heater, but that bill only runs about 20-30 a month. We did use our heater one day here this year..LOL. Also our water is really cheap. We pay 25 every other month. So it all balances out!

By Dawnk777 on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 02:21 pm:

Our worst electric bill was about $150 this past year. The worst gas bill was $290 in January.

We pay by-the-month.

By Tink on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 07:17 pm:

Electricity usually runs us about $150/month and that's with a balanced payment plan so that we aren't paying $250+ in the summer and less than $100 in the winter. Our gas bill is usually around $75/month. We're in a small place but it's pretty poorly insulated. We'll be doubling our square footage when we move but we've been told not to expect the bill to go up more than $25 or so because it's newly insulated and has new double-paned, gas something or other windows.

By Kym on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 07:57 pm:

We pay 109 every month, our company allows you to average it out over the year and pay a flat rate, so not sure each month, but averages $109 a month.

By Reds9298 on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 10:53 pm:

Our company also allows you to "budget" and pay an average every month, but we've never done that. In the hot humid months, our electric bills run about $160 or so. That's down about $40/mth. since we got all new A/C and furnace last year. (My heat bill went down about the same amt. each month as well.) Our highest heating bill now is about $185, down from easily $225-$240 before.

This is our cheap month of the year! It's so mild here right now that we need our furnace at night, but windows open during the day, so it's a nice $ break.

By Yjja123 on Friday, May 19, 2006 - 11:03 pm:

Our last bill was a whopping $300.00 and it isn't even summer yet
We called our AC company in because we installed new windows and a new Trane AC so our bill should not be so high!

By Karen~moderator on Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 09:20 am:

Yvonne, how recently did you install the new stuff? We got our new windows over a year ago, and it took a couple of months for me to realize the difference in the bill. Also, did you go with a higher capacity A/C than you had before? It would cool your home more efficiently, but it might cost a bit more to actually run.

By Pamt on Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 10:18 am:

We are on level billing and our electric bill is about $266/month. Our house was built in the 70s and has cheap windows--about 1900 sq ft. We had our heat on for about 10 days total and have had our a/c on every other day. We had no winter this year! We can't ever open windows because too much allergies and asthma in this house.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 10:24 am:

We also have new windows, but they were here when we bought the house.
Karen, you're right about the higher capacity A/C and costing more to run it. We really looked at that when we put in our new system (Carrier) last year. That might be something to look at Yvonne.

By Yjja123 on Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 02:33 pm:

New windows a year ago. New --yes bigger--AC about 6 months ago but it just started running non-stop. This is not our hottest weather--yet.
$300 is more than we have ever paid! Between the new (more efficant) AC and windows, our bills should be the same or lower than last years. The AC company is due to come check everything out this afternoon.